The DfE has published their latest apprenticeships statistics covering apprenticeship starts, apprenticeship service registrations and commitments and apprenticeship levy information. The data shows there have been 315,900 apprenticeship starts reported to date between August 2017 and May 2018 for the 2017/18 academic year, which is a drop of 31% compared to 2016/17. Click here for response from the sector.
Many sector commentators now regard the achievement of the Government’s 3M apprenticeship starts target between 2015-20 as unachievable and FE week is reporting that DfE officials are avoiding opportunities to reaffirm their commitment to the target.